Brewery: The Black Sheep Brewery
Location: Masham, North Yorkshire
ABV: 5.7%
Version: bottled
Source: Asda

Father Christmas was there when I bought this.  Not shopping – I don’t think he shops in Asda – but sitting around in a shed charging little kids to go and see him.  I wonder if my kids have ever noticed that … the fact that Santa charges for them to go and chat with him for two minutes then get a present?  I doubt it, and that’s nice.  Oh to be a kid again.

This is a lovely drop.  I’ve sampled it many times, but I don’t think anyone has blogged about it here, so I thought it was about time.  It pours a lovely golden brown, maintaining a generous head all the way down the glass.  It’s a very smooth ale-perhaps too creamy? – but the taste more than makes up for that.  Rich, complex, beginning banana-sweet and ending with a definite coffee aftertase, though not too cloying.  You can taste the strength of this one too, and after a couple of bottles you can feel it.

Santa noticed that I’d bought a couple of bottles of this, and he made admiring noises.  But his nose was red enough already.  It was only 2pm, and he had hours to go, so I promised him – in front of my kids – that I’d leave him a nice glass of single malt on Christmas Eve.  He didn’t seem as pleased as I’d hoped.